Before You Survey

Survey Reminder Notices

It would be nice if every employee responded immediately to a request to participate in an employee survey. It doesn’t happen. Within a two or three days of the initial survey invitation, the number of responses will wane. Periodic reminders will be necessary to obtain a high response rate. The graph below (part of the online response update system we make available to each client) shows a spike for the initial invitation, followed by five days of low response.

The five subsequent spikes show the response to reminder notices. The last spike isn’t as evident, but does show a small rise from the last reminder.

A reminder note should be short. It must thank employees who already have responded, make a case for responding, guarantee confidentiality, provide a URL and a deadline. Here is an example of such a note:

Subject: Your Input Needed

We would like you to give us your opinions about working at {company name] by completing an employee survey. This is your opportunity to let us know what you believe is working well here and what needs improvement.

Here are a few important notes about the survey:

The survey will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

You may complete the survey during work hours.

The survey is anonymous and completely confidential. At the end of the questionnaire there are a few questions that ask how long you have worked here, your age, what your role here is, and your department. These questions will not be used to try to figure out “who said what.” Rather, they will be used to find out how different groups of people feel about things (such as, how peoples’ opinions in one department compare to the opinions of the company as a whole).

We will carefully consider the survey findings and will report back to you on what we found and how we intend to address any issues we uncover in the analysis.

Survey responses will be accepted until {date/time}.

To take the survey, go to this location on the Internet:

https://www.employeesurveys.com/CompanyURL.php

Thank you in advance for your assistance with this matter.

We will provide whatever assistance you need in crafting reminder notices.